Restaurant review: Primrose cafe and bistro

Tuesday 4th August 2009

This is a Crackerjack review of Primrose Cafe and Bistro. Do you agree? Rate and review this venue.

Food and drink: 9 / 10.
Service: 8 / 10.
Atmosphere: 9 / 10.
Value for money: 8 / 10.

There are lots of chefs and restaurateurs jumping on the “local”, “seasonal” and “organic” bandwagon these days.
Menus are littered with these terms but in many cases they have become overused cliches and soundbites with little relevance to what really happens in the kitchen.

For every chef who is really buying locally grown, seasonal produce, there are several more buying their ingredients from anywhere on the planet as long as it’s the cheapest they can get their hands on in order to boost profit margins.

For some chefs, buying imported produce from a local company is enough for them to say they “we source locally”, which makes a mockery of the whole thing. As for organic – well, you could count on one hand the Bristol chefs making a determined effort to buy organic produce, but that’s another story.

So thank heavens for people like Patrick Glennie-Smith, the owner and chef of the Primrose Cafe in Clifton Village. For more than a decade, Patrick has quietly championed all things local, seasonal, and often organic. He’s not as high profile as some chefs in this city, but then he’s a modest, reserved sort of chap – characteristics not often found in big bad chefs.

Primrose Cafe is something of a Bristol institution. By day, it’s a buzzy cafe and magnet for Clifton’s beautiful people. In the evening, out come the church candles and twinkling fairy lights, as the cafe turns into an informal and lively bistro. With its dark red walls, bare wooden tables and church chairs and fresh flowers in brown stone bottles, it’s a relaxed and appealing space, with alfresco tables outside being highly prized on balmy evenings.

The menu changes weekly, with daily specials scratched on the chalkboards, and there is an excellent value menu (two courses for £14.95, three courses for £17.95) running alongside the a la carte.

Changing the menu so often means that seasonality is key and a no more seasonal summer menu than one with a cast that includes Jersey Royals, broad beans, peas, mint, strawberries, gooseberries and elderflowers.

The menu was packed with dishes I wanted to order: frittata of Cornish crab with spring onions and ginger; pan-fried mackerel fillets with roasted beetroot and crème fraiche; grilled lemon sole with garlic and parsley butter and so on. All simple things done well.

On such a sticky evening, something chilled was required when it came to wine and the Les Oliviers Domaine de Mont-Auriol 2008 (£16) was spot on – a crisp, pale salmon pink rosé from Provence with a creamy strawberry edge.

My starter of warm salad of smoked pigeon breast, Jersey Royals and broad beans (£6.95) was a very satisfying plate of food. The slices of pink pigeon breast had a subtle woodland smokiness, the potatoes were crushed and shaped into a small wheel, and a tangy wholegrain mustard and honey dressing was drizzled around the broad beans.

I followed it with braised rabbit with mustard, buttered noodles with peas and tarragon (£16.50) – a fabulously robust, ballsy dish with bags of flavour. The loin and leg of the bunny was pink and juicy within the crisp Parma ham-coating, the peas really tasted of peas and the snipped tarragon was restrained but still making its presence felt in the mustard-based sauce. A ruffle of peppery watercress cut through any richness. It was rustic European peasant food of the highest order.

In contrast, a tart gooseberry fool (£5.75) arrived in an elegant sundae glass with a divine champagne and elderflower sorbet that encapsulated the taste of an English summer. And how good to see gooseberries on the menu in the first place – they are a precious commodity and one of our most underrated summer fruits.

Eighteen months ago, Patrick stepped back from cooking at the Primrose Cafe to concentrate on running his Arch House Deli opposite, but he recently returned to the stoves.

He has clearly returned with renewed enthusiasm for this was an excellent meal, cooked by somebody with a clear understanding of seasonal produce and a love of cooking simple, intelligent, 
delicious food.

MARK TAYLOR

Prices: Starters from £5.95; main courses from £12.50; desserts from £4.50
Wheelchair access: Yes

This is a Crackerjack review of Primrose Cafe and Bistro. Do you agree? Rate and review this venue.